Axel's Wonderful Life
by NakanoHana
Summary: Based on, what else? A Wonderful Life. Axel meets an angel who wants to show him that hey, things could be a whole lot worse. Contains akuroku, so be forewarned. Merry Christmas 2013 :)


Merry Christmas, everybody! I started working on this last year, but got kind of lazy and let it slip away from me. Found it again this year, and figured it'd make a decent little story for this holiday season. Hope you like it! Be safe and happy this holiday, and I hope you have a nice time with your families and get lots of good stuff! :)

* * *

Frost glistened like little diamonds in the low lamplight, and a dusting of fresh snow almost covered the streets from sight. There wasn't much of it to play with just yet, but the children who weren't already home or in bed scooped it up and tossed it at one another, laughing merrily. A few men and women took a moment to shovel their stoops and pathways and smiled at the playful scamps as they scurried past, urging them again and again to take care on the slick roads. Everyone else was already indoors, snuggled up with their families, or braving the stores for a last, desperate bout of holiday shopping.

So busy and happy were they, no one noticed the lone man sprinting down the street.

He passed the few crowds of children, shovelers, and carolers without care, as ignorant of them as they were of him. He doubted anyone stopping him would change his mind anyway. How could they possible know?

He ran like the devil was at his heels. Funny in a way, because Hell would surely be waiting for him just ahead. The irony wasn't lost on him, but he didn't care.

After a clumsy turn which almost sent him skidding into a mailbox, the man reached his destination. He stopped dead for a moment, catching his breath as he slowly realized where his feet had taken him. His eyes scanned the area quickly. No people.

He slowly crossed to the middle of the old bridge, gripping the railing with tight, tense fists. Looking at the river below, he saw dark, rushing water. Probably freezing cold, too.

Swallowing heavily, he leaned over the side and thought about all the good this would do. He couldn't second guess now. He just had to do it.

_Wait..._

The man gasped, his foot slipping from the bar and back onto the snowy bridge. He looked around a moment, but saw that there was no one there.

'Just my imagination,' he thought, lifting one foot, then the other, as he slowly began climbing the cold railing.

_Axel, wait!_

He stopped again, but he still felt no presence. Was he going insane?

_No, you're not going insane… well, other than the fact that you're seriously considering jumping off this bridge._

In that moment, a glowing light filled his vision. Letting his feet slip back to the ground again, the man covered his eyes until the brilliant light faded, and he jumped a little when he saw a man standing a few feet behind him. The guy was almost his height, but unlike Axel's wild, spiky red hair, his was dirty blonde, standing up in some weird cross between a mullet and a mohawk. Axel gaped at the stranger as he dusted off his...white robes?

"Well, that could have gone better. I gotta say, it'd be a lot easier traveling to and from the mortal plane if I had wings." The blonde shrugged. "Oh well. Like Old Man Luxord says, we play the cards we're dealt."

Wide green eyes stared back like he was crazy.

"Wait, wait! Who in the- no, I've got one better-What the hell are you?"

The blonde wagged a finger at him. "It's not nice to swear, Axel."

"Oh, you want to see swearing? You haven't seen shit yet." He bunched up his fists and glared the guy down. "I'm warning you! If you're an alien or something, you can just back the hell off!"

The other man rolled his eyes. "Humans and their weird ideas. I'm no alien, you silly! I'm an angel! The name's Demyx!" The self-proclaimed angel reached out and took his hand, uncurling the fist before shaking it firmly. He chuckled as Axel stood stiff, gaping at him. "Pleasure to meet you."

"No way. If you're an angel, which I don't buy for a second by the way," he said flatly, jabbing the guy's arm harshly with his pointer finger, "Where are your wings?"

Demyx sighed. "I just said, dude. I don't have any."

"So how can you be an angel if you don't have wings?"

"Look, it's complicated, okay? Some angels have them right off, like the really big guys up there, and others...well, they have to work hard to get them. It's got to do with good behavior, helping people, that kind of stuff. That's why I'm here now, to help you stop being such a sad-sack on Christmas Eve!"

Axel rolled his eyes. He must have hallucinated that whole glowing thing, so he brushed it off and turned back to the railing.

"You can't help me. Hell, you probably aren't really there. Life sucks, I suck, I'm not fucking good at anything. I might as well do everyone a favor and just drop off the face of the earth." The words stung in his own ears, but the redhead couldn't help but feel it was true. He was a selfish prick who just ended up hurting his loved ones all the time. Even when he did what he wanted, he wasn't happy. He never felt happy anymore.

"That's not true, Axel." He flinched when Demyx laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Your friends and family's lives have been so enriched because of you. You have a good job, a good family, and a loving husband and daughters that are so worried about you even now. You have a wonderful life, Axel."

The redhead shrugged him off, turning and glaring. "It's not wonderful! It's a sea of failure and disappointment! My bitch of a boss hates my guts and fired me, and Roxas..." He trailed off slowly, clenching his eyes and fists tight. All he ever did was upset Roxas. He was never home, never spent time with him or Kairi or Namine, just always at work trying to support them.

But apparently that wasn't enough. He needed to come home more, be home by dinnertime, take them out more, go to Kairi's clarinet recital. And the more he missed out, the guiltier and angrier he felt. Roxas was right on some levels, sure, but damn it, he couldn't support the kids and be around 24/7 too!

The guiltier and angrier he felt, the harsher he would be when Roxas nagged him, making them argue almost all the time. The redhead had been sleeping on the couch several nights on and off, and it was making him crazy and stressed.

Why couldn't Roxas fucking do more? He needed to find work! If he had found something before this, things would have been simpler.

"You're walking down a dangerous road, Axel. Feeling bitter like that isn't going to help things."

The man laughed harshly. "Tell me something, angel, why does bad shit happen to so many good people? Riddle me that. If God is so great, why the fuck does he just twiddle his thumbs up there and let assholes-"

Demyx slapped a hand over his mouth, struggling with him for a moment. Axel vaguely wondered why no one was coming to help him, but the area was deserted. People were probably at home or in church by now. Or maybe they just didn't care about a worthless nobody like him.

Merry Christmas.

"They can't see you as long as I'm here, now shhhhhh!"

Demyx yelped when he bit him, and Axel used the moment to gain the upper hand. He spun the blonde around and stuck him in a headlock. "Why should I?"

"Because!" The other man slammed his back into the railing, knocking the wind out of him for a moment. "You're saying things you shouldn't be!"

"Oh yeah?" Axel finally shoved him off, pushing the other man into a patch of snow by their feet. "Prove me wrong."

Demyx dug himself out of the bank and stood, brushing his robes off.

"Fine. I'll show you what it'd be like if you were never born. Then you can do whatever, just no more throwing me into snow!" The blonde pouted as Axel gave a bitter smirk. "Come with me." He grabbed the man by the arm and jumped gracefully into the air, as a swirling ball of light surrounded them.

"W-What's going on?" he yelled, shielding his eyes again. "Where are we going?!"

Demyx rolled his eyes and pulled them both into the center.

"Like I said: to see a world without you."

The air around them shifted, and the next moment, their feet slammed into cold, hard, frosty ground again, but something was distinctly different about the bridge. It was day, Axel noticed, and there were people strolling by in pairs that didn't seem to notice the two men with crazy hair falling out of the sky. He stepped up to a passing woman, raising a hand-

"They can't see us, don't worry. Either way, you don't exist in this world."

Axel lowered his hand, grimacing as the lady continued mindlessly on her way.

'Oh, great,' the redhead thought bitterly. 'Alone with a psycho angel thing.'

"I heard that."

Reluctantly, Axel followed the angel through town, momentarily shocked as they walked right through people with no problem. Demyx would fade almost invisible when he passed through someone, but he appeared again in a glow of dust on the other side of the person. Axel tried it once, out of curiosity, but he was slightly disappointed when he felt nothing. The man kept on his way too, not seeming to be disturbed by the spectral presence around him.

"Stop doing that. They can't see, hear, or feel you, no matter what you do."

Axel gave a short, bitter chuckle. "Sounds like every damn day of my life."

Without a word, Demyx led him down a side street, passing a few children gliding by on sleds. They almost took out an old man who was leaving the bakery, and he shook his cane at them. Axel frowned.

"Brats. Someone really out to teach them better." He perked up as Demyx led him down an increasingly familiar road. "Are we...?"

"We're going to see your childhood home," the angel said simply.

"But why? I moved out years ago." The two of them approached a small, cozy suburban house, its windows dark despite the hour. Passing the unshoveled driveway completely, they trekked into the yard, leaving the snow unmarked with just the barest audible crunch.

Axel regarded the home with shock. It looked like a wreck! At least one window on the upper floor had a break, probably from some kid's baseball, and the paint on the exterior needed serious touching up. It looked a slight yellow now, and moldy. The redhead was no home inspector, but he could tell the roof needed repair in several places too.

"What…happened here?" If they had lived, his parents would have wept to see their home look this awful.

Demyx said nothing, only motioned for him to look in the window, which he did was some hesitation. Inside, the living room was dark, hidden behind heavy curtains that Axel supposed they were seeing through. The only light came from the television on the far wall.

On the couch sat a man with messy red hair, dressed in a black band tee cut sleeveless and dirty skinny jeans, which were unbuttoned to allow room for his growing stomach. Scattered around the couch were cans of beer and soda, and lots of empty pizza and chinese food containers.

The man was chugging a beer and flipping through channels mindlessly. He stopped on a music station, glaring at the band that was playing. The lead singer began giving an interview, and Axel jumped as the other redhead snarled, chucking a bowl of cheesy chips at the screen. The glass cracked, and the bowl and chips tumbled to the floor, spilling everywhere.

"Reno? What…W-What the hell?"

The angel nodded beside him, sweeping a hand to the glass. "Without you in the picture, your brother never turned his life around."

Axel blinked. "Wait, you mean-?"

"Yes. He stayed with Shinra and went on tour. He got hooked on some pretty bad drugs and threw massive temper tantrums. His band kicked him out, so he moved back in here." Demyx shook his head, sighing sadly. "He's going to have a nasty surprise tomorrow."

"What's tomorrow?"

The blonde raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, Christmas, of course, but instead of Santa, he's getting a visit from the repo men. Can't afford to keep his stuff, so he'll be left with only this house."

"No…" Axel looked back just in time to see his younger brother stomp off to the kitchen, shouting a string of profanity that was muffled by the house. "What about Uncle Rufus? Can't he-?"

"Your uncle stopped talking to him a year ago," Demyx replied solemnly, shaking his head and turning away. "We shouldn't linger here much longer."

"What? No! No, I have to help him!"

"This world isn't real, remember?" The blonde snapped, rubbing his forehead irritably. "Don't you listen at all?"

"Of course I do! I just…" The redhead glanced over his shoulder, suddenly feeling weary and hopeless. "I just can't believe it."

"Well, believe it. Like I said, this is the world that would be, were you never born. Now come on. My time is short."

Axel wanted to ask why, wanted to snap so bad, but his jaw clenched, and the words didn't come. Seeing Reno falling apart was hard. Telling him to quit his band back then had been hard, but even though the kid had pitched a fit and hated him for a while, it ultimately did him good. Reno was only so talented, and way too moody and bratty, and with all the temptations of stardom…well, Axel had been worried for him.

He hated now, knowing he would have been right.

Demyx took his hand without a word and pulled him into what appeared to be a swirling mass of air and snow. It was like a portal, and once through, Axel saw that they were at a hospital in another town. He shuddered as he was pulled through the door.

"Who is here?" He felt almost too much dread to ask, but he forced the question out anyway.

"Do you happen to remember the car you hit the other day?" Demyx asked honestly.

Axel frowned. This guy's moods seemed all over the place; solemn one minute, then angry, then just…weird. He groaned a little.

"Yeah, you mean the one that totaled the whole front of my car?" His insurance was helpful, but he was still going to end up paying a lot. For both him and the other guy.

White walls passed unnoticed, people disregarded as they walked straight through them, then to the stairwell. Up they went, up several flights of stairs, with no one around. Patients and guests usually took the elevator.

"Yeah, that one. Turns out, you actually did some good."

The redhead raised an eyebrow, not amused. "How do you figure that exactly?"

Demyx said nothing, leading him to a room marked 12. He swept a hand, motioning for Axel to go in, so he did.

A young girl was lying on a bed, unconscious. Her breathing was slow, in and out, and she looked very pale and fragile, visible skin dotted with bruises. There was a large bruise right above her eye, kissed lightly by her soft, blond bangs, which lay disheveled across her forehead and the pillow below.

"Who is this?" Axel asked, looking from the machine monitoring her pulse and breathing to a clipboard sitting on the sheets by her arm. "'Larxene?'"

"You don't know her, but by hitting that guy on the road, you saved her from this fate. She was walking home from school, separated from her friends, and crossed the street. She didn't get out of the way fast enough, and his break wasn't working properly."

"Hey! So then it wasn't completely my fault after all!"

"Axel!"

The redhead blinked, then looked down bashfully. For a moment, he'd lost track of things.

"So…how bad is she?"

Demyx shook his head. "You can read it on those notes there, but the short of it is no. She's in a coma now, but she'll never wake. In a month, her parents will have the doctors pull the plug."

Green eyes swept over the scene once more, feeling pain and tears as they came across the battered girl.

"Is she okay in real life?"

Demyx smiled a little then, patting him lightly on the back. "She's fine. She's getting ready to finish up her sophomore year of college with her friends."

"And I helped her."

The blonde's smile widened. "Yep."

The self-proclaimed angel then led him to a few more people, scattered friends who were lacking support in their lives. None of them were too terribly off, though, and Axel was beginning to feel his good feelings waning. He felt bad for Reno and Larxene of course, but no one else desperately needed him. He hadn't made a real difference in anyone's life.

The redhead knew he was just a bother, and besides, these scenarios were just if he hadn't been born. Obviously he had, and so these exact events would happen. Unpleasant, but ineffectual.

"You may be right, but then again, you may be wrong," Demyx said, reading his thoughts again. "I think there's one more person you need to see."

Axel frowned. "Who else could there be?" If it was another stranger or charity case he'd helped, that was great, but it didn't make much of a difference to him. Anyone could have done it.

Demyx must have read his thoughts again, but he only tightened his lip.

Entering another portal, this one resembling water and bubbles, they arrived at a house that was all too familiar to Axel. An ice-spike of dread stabbed him cold in the stomach, and his face went ashen.

"No…"

The blonde nodded. "I hated to show you this, but it's true. Without your love and support, he never found the courage to get out."

"No!"

"Axel-"

The other man raced forward, pushing past Demyx and running right through the wall.

'It can't be!' he thought frantically. 'He left the fucker! He had to have left him!'

Instantly, he heard voices, and his head snapped to the side.

"Stop!"

"You don't tell me what to do, you little fag!"

"Dad, please, stop!"

Axel ran from the kitchen to the living room, cursing when he saw Cloud pressing his son to the wall, pulling back his fist.

"LET HIM GO!" the redhead roared, charing forward and grabbing for that hand.

But he passed right through it.

Roxas cried out with every blow, shrinking back and fighting to free his arms from his father's grip to defend himself. Axel swiped at Cloud again and again, trying to beat the man as he was now beating his lover, but his hands passed through the figure like he was made of air.

Axel was as helpless as Roxas.

The scene around him then churned and faded into blackness, but Axel screamed and lunged, trying to cling to the image. Roxas was losing consciousness, as the hand that punched him began to clench on his throat.

"NO! ROXAS!"

Then there was nothing. The world before him had disappeared, but the redhead had seen it. He knew in his heart what that meant.

"You bastard!" he screamed. "Get out here right now and take me back, or so help me, I-!"

"Axel, calm down!"

The redhead whirled around, eyes damp and burning with fury. Demyx had materialized next two him, and he looked very surprised by the extent of emotion.

"How can I calm down?! Roxas needs me!"

"It's just an image, Axel! A fabrication!"

"You're a sick fuck! Why the fuck would you make that?!"

"I didn't!" Demyx pleaded emphatically. "These are just shadows of things that could have been, and could still be, if you die!"

The red-headed man froze. His heart seized painfully, and he looked away into the inky blackness.

"So…you're saying that if I jump off that bridge…?"

"Think, Axel! That's all I'm trying to get you to do here! What would Roxas, Kairi, and Namine do? Roxas doesn't have a job yet, despite how hard he's been trying." The other man looked back, surprised, but Demyx continued, eyeing him seriously. "Your friends could only feed three mouths for so long, Axel. He'd be torn between taking them to a shelter and returning to the only family he has left."

Axel shook his head, taking a step back. "No…No, I don't want that! How can I stop it?" His gaze met Demyx's. "Please...there is a way, isn't there?"

He still didn't care much about himself, but he couldn't let Roxas go through that.

'Roxas...'

The angel sighed. This was the best he could hope for, as of now. It wasn't wing-worthy, maybe, but it would keep Axel alive long enough for him to fix himself.

Demyx took his hand then, tugging him closer as the darkness around them seemed to shift a little.

"What you have to understand is that life is hard, Axel. Nobody coasts through it with ease, not even the luckiest men alive. I won't stop you if you think you must."

"They mean the world to me," Axel replied, feeling more weary than he had yet. "I can't…not now…"

The angel nodded. "It doesn't take much to kill yourself, and that may seem like the easiest solution, or the best, but it's a truly strong person that strives to overcome life's obstacles and live a long and happy life. You can have that, Axel. You and your family deserve that."

"So the only solution is…just to press on?"

Demyx nodded. "Go home. Celebrate Christmas. Try to keep things positive. It's a difficult time of the year, I know, but you have a choice of what to make it. If only for your daughters' sakes, don't make it a time for sadness and pain. Make it a time for forgetting those things, and replacing them with love."

"Okay…" But that meant he had to go home and face them. Face _him_…

"Cheer up, Axel!" The angel went to him and lightly punched his arm. "You can make things right again. You just have to face the past, then look to the future."

"But how?" he cried, shaking his head. "I…"

The blonde waved his hand and brought them back to the bridge. With a grin, he faded from the other man's sight, his last words echoing.

"You'll figure it out. Now go, and remember, I'll be watching you."

Axel gaped around at the lonely bridge, the snow-covered banks, and the water below. It was Christmas Eve again, and all was still. Even the lamps seemed to be dimming; the winds licking the flickering flames down to half their size.

"I've gotta get home!"

So as before, he took off down the snowy streets, which were now fairly deserted. Glancing at his phone, he saw that it was almost midnight, only ten minutes off.

'Shoot!' he thought. His little girls were probably very upset with him. No way would they be sleeping, even with Santa Claus coming tonight. He had to talk to them.

It took five minutes to reach his house. Fumbling with his keys briefly, he unlocked the door and slipped inside.

Just as he thought, two little girls immediately swarmed to him, grabbing his legs and crying.

"Daddy!"

"Daddy, you're home!"

He smiled thinly, crouching down and scooping them up in his arms.

"Yes, I am. I'm sorry for storming out like that." He kissed Namine's forehead, then Kairi's, his smile wavering just a bit when he saw them look up with sad blue eyes. "Aren't you tired? You should be in bed."

"We were scared!" Namine said. "We thought you weren't gonna come back!"

"Of course I would," he lied smoothly. "I just need a little fresh air."

"You were yelling," Kairi said, her eyes tearing up.

Axel winced, but he had to thank Demyx or whoever was watching over him that the girls hadn't seen the fight. They'd have been afraid of him, and he didn't want that at all.

"I didn't mean to. I just…got mad." It was true. It didn't excuse anything, but it was true. They each said some angry things, things he knew neither of them meant, but he'd been tired. It was a terrible day, and Roxas had hit a sore spot in the argument.

"We can sort it out later. You girls should be in bed. It's late."

"But-!" they cried in unison.

"No buts," he said firmly, standing and taking one hand each. "I'll fix things with Daddy, but you need to go to sleep. Wouldn't want Santa to know you're up and pass us by, would you?"

"But you're still awake!" Kairi said.

"Yeah! Daddy is too!"

Axel smiled. "Santa only cares about children. But we'll go to sleep soon too. Now come on."

After weather some more protests, he finally managed to get his daughters tucked in and quiet. He closed the door softly, then crept from their room to his bedroom. The door was shut tight but a row of light shining beneath the crack.

Suppressing a shudder, he turned the handle and slowly began to push the door open.

"Go to bed, girls. Daddy will be home soon."

"He's home now," Axel replied, opening the door fully.

Roxas jumped a little. He was sitting on the bed with his laptop beside him. Behind the bed was a sack of presents, all wrapped and ready for Santa to put under the tree. And beside that, there lay a large, open suitcase, only partially filled with scattered clothes.

"A-Axel."

The redhead winced again. He saw fear in those eyes; dimmed from their earlier fight, but rekindling slowly. He saw the large bruise on the blonde's left cheek, and drying tracks of tears on both sides. And in a glimpse inside his mind, he saw himself reflected in those blue eyes. It didn't look like him anymore though.

It was the image of Cloud.

"Roxas, I-"

"Go away, Axel," the blonde said, cutting him off. Despite his attempts to keep his voice firm, the younger man was trembling slightly, and his words shook ever so slightly.

"Roxas, I never meant to hurt you. I mean it." As his lover turned and looked away, Axel fell to his knees and crawled forward, pausing at the edge of the bed. "I was angry, but that's no excuse. I'm so sorry."

The blonde bit his lip as tears began spilling from his eyes.

"Please stay away. I...I can't forgive you, Axel." Roxas looked at the window, covered softly by an emerald green curtain. His expression was slowly going blank, resolved.

"You hit me. You promised you never would, and you did it anyway."

"I know I promised! I made a mistake!" he cried, trying to keep his voice down despite the situation. He had stirred up memories of a buried time, a time neither of them had ever wanted to revisit. Before Roxas had left, escaping from the unrelenting anger and emptiness his father had tried to force upon him.

Roxas's hand clenched the comforter tightly, and he swallowed heavily as he met his husband's eyes.

"I don't know what to believe. H-How can I ever feel safe again?"

Not waiting anymore, the redhead got to his feet and circled the bed to Roxas's side. The younger man squirmed to get away at first, but Axel held him tightly, understanding when the blonde's shaking grew, and his voice fell into sobs.

"You can feel safe with me, Roxas. I swear." Tears sprang to his eyes too, and the redhead sniffled into soft blonde hair. "Believe me, I couldn't live with myself for hurting you."

"T-Then why?"

Axel sighed. "I hadn't realized what I'd done til it was too late." He squeezed the other man tighter to him. "Please, Roxas, I'm sorry."

He held his husband for a long time, rubbing his back and soothing him gently. Axel hated to have caused this much pain.

_Just think of how much more he'd feel if you'd died._

Axel blinked, glancing around for a minute. No one else was there.

_He loves you so very much. _Axel jumped then, recognizing the voice. It was in his head again. _You should be very careful with him from now on. Love can only take so much strain._

Axel nodded. "I will." He had promised to love and cherish the man til death, and he fully wanted to do that.

He thought he heard a hum of satisfaction.

"Hmm?"

He looked down just in time for the blonde to look up, and he smiled helplessly at the red eyes and nose, the flushed face, and teary eyes. The younger man was so beautiful and sweet. Axel didn't deserve such a man to call his own.

"Nothing. I'm sorry, Roxy." He was rewarded with a wry smile at the use of the familiar pet name. "I promise never to hit you again. And if I do, God forbid it, you can take the girls and leave me. I won't stop you. Hell, I'll send you away myself."

"Please…just don't let it come to that." Roxas nuzzled closer to him, sighing softly. "I love you."

"I love you too. So damn much."

He didn't have the heart to drop the news about his boss firing him. Not tonight, at least. He wasn't going to ruin his family's Christmas anymore than he already had.

He needed some Christmas spirit, and _bad. _

"You can come in now," Axel called back to the door. He heard a soft gasp before the door was hesitantly opened again. He and Roxas chuckled, relaxing even more against each other.

Namine was carrying her stuffed bear, his little fuzzy neck adorned with a bright red Christmas ribbon. She held Kairi's hand in hers, and the two girls looked nervously to their parents. Out of the corner of his eye, Axel saw Roxas nudge the presents beside him further out of sight with his foot. They slipped under the bed, but neither man cared much.

"Daddy?"

Axel nodded, smiling widely as he sat up and opened his arms.

"It's alright now."

With a cry, the two leapt forward, jumping onto the bed and catapulting themselves into Axel and Roxas's arms.

"Can we sleep with you tonight?" Namine begged, she and Kairi cuddling between them.

"Of course," the older blonde said, ruffling her hair. "But we have to go to sleep right now, or Santa isn't coming for sure!"

"No!" Kairi whined. "He won't bring my playhouse!"

"Quick! Quick!" The sisters pushed their parents aside, scampering hurriedly under the covers. "Turn out the light!"

"You sure you can fall asleep so easily?" Roxas asked, setting his laptop on the floor and getting comfortable beside them.

"Yes! Now huuurrrry!"

"Yeah, Daddy! Huuurrry!"

Axel laughed loudly, reaching over to tug the chord. He'd change and shower in the morning.

"Alright, lights going out. Good night, everyone. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Daddy!" the girls replied quickly, shutting their eyes and pretending to snore as the room darkened.

It would take some time before the two men could sneak away and stash the presents under the tree, undiscovered, but that could come later. Meeting each others gazes in the dark, Axel smiled as Roxas did.

As they snoozed lightly, held together in each other's arms, the little family was at peace again.

Demyx nodded to himself, contently watching them a little longer before a bell chimed above him. Ah, the soft, warm sound of Christmas bells. Like music to his ears.

He squealed with delight and took off in another portal, eager to receive his just reward.

_Take care, Axel. _


End file.
